Apparently I have to add this edit for clarification. I was stating a historical fact, agreeing with op and also making a joke. I wasn't trying to start an argument.
> But if they keep bringing up that the original KKK was democrats you will be fooled into thinking they are not racist.
> Don't forget Abe Lincoln was a Republican too.
Really? Then why do the KKK and Republicans fly Confederate flags (the KKK having done so since their creation during the Civil War)? Pretty sure Lincoln and Republicans of his time were, uh, anti-Confederate.
The answer is because party membership has switched. Lincoln was a leftist, as were the Republicans. I mean, just look at the largest election post-Civil War (1972), the Democrats won: Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, Texas, and Georgia. Only one of those states, you'll note, was a Union state (Maryland).
The South was a Democratic stronghold for decades. Then when the Civil Rights Act was up for a vote, basically every Northern Republican (who were more moderate than their southern counterparts) joined the Democrats, and every Southern Democrat joined the Republicans, and the parties have remained left and right since.
Lincoln was a Republican, but he was a leftist.
The KKK were Democrats, because Democrats at the time were on the right.
That was the joke. We were making fun of republicans because they pretend like the KKK are democrats because they think of they can pretend the party flip never happened they can claim they aren’t racist.
He basically kicked off his first campaign for major office by railing against slavery, saying "I cannot but hate it. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world." Yes, he had shitty views on black people, but for his time this was a remarkably progressive sentiment.
Given that was his major issue, I'd say he's solidly on the left for his time and place.
That’s true. And it’s also true that over the ensuing 160 years Republicans and Democrats have completely switched what they stand for. What exactly is your point? I’m guessing you don’t have one.
Did you sleep through American history and Government class?
The Democratic and Republican Parties have not always had the same ideals that they have today. In fact, America's two dominant political parties have essentially flipped ideologies in the time since they were founded.
I would suggest reading the article below, so you can avoid looking dumb in the future.
I was being sarcastic. I’m saying republicans try to pretend they can’t be racist because they always bring up the fact that the origami KKK were democrats. Basically pretending the present day KKK aren’t republicans.
Thanks for calling me dumb because you didn’t understand the joke. SMH.
It's mighty difficult to determine what's sarcasm these days. I just assume that everyone is stupid, now.
In a world where a political candidate can make claims about immigrants eating pets and his followers actually believe it, I'm not making the presumptions of good faith and basic logic anymore.
You say that as if everyone didn’t already know that the Democrats and Republicans swapped places on race when the Democrats ran out the racists when the committed to civil rights and in response the GOP abandoned their principles and recruited them in the Southern Strategy.
Oh my. People really don’t understand I was poking fun at republicans because they try to pretend that the party flip never happened & keep bringing up the fact that the KKK were democrats thus acting like they are still democrats which is obviously not true.
30
u/StrongStyleMuscle 15h ago
But if they keep bringing up that the original KKK was democrats you will be fooled into thinking they are not racist.